King Lear Reader's Response

The content explored within William Shakespeare's play King Lear is riveting at the very least, and retrospectively an inherent influence on most (if not, all) modern dramatic story-lines that I have minded. One needn't even consider the time-period in which Shakespeare created the entanglement of moods and matters found within his characters to appreciate the clarity of each one's personality, even in just reading the lines of his work as a story-book (though the consideration of such makes it all the more astounding). As the Elizabethan dialect used in all of Shakespeare's works can often be misunderstood to someone who is not familiar with this form of the English language, making sense of the deeper significance within certain characters' lines was often very challenging. Exhaustive critical assessment of King Lear yields many displays of symbolism and imagery behind several of the lines throughout, but even considering the content at a relative face-value demonstrates the complexity of the characters' thoughts and feelings. Every character seems to play an important role in adding to a collective group of emotions, each one's actions based off of their own and influencing the other(s); a domino effect. In particular, Lear's character is easily the most influenced by the emotions and actions of those surrounding him. This influence can be attributed by his position throughout the plot: being someone who is elderly, Lear could have more of a “fragile” mind; because of his surrender of kingship and its results, he understandably develops feelings of isolation and of being forsaken, although this is not entirely rightfully so. Interestingly, Lear's descent into madness is partly a product of his own stubborn nature and misinterpretation of his circumstances, as even those who express their honest intentions out of concern are rejected by him.

Aside from being hung up on some vocabulary in Shakespeare's writing, I really enjoyed King Lear, particularly Lear's...

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firstly, insufficient mercy leads to disparaging relationships and the downfall of kingdoms;
secondly, Cordelia shows mercy towards her father, KingLear after Lear casts her out of the kingdom when she does not heed to his ego thus demonstrating the restoration of their relationship;
and lastly, Edgar’s critical act of mercy which led to Gloucester’s epiphany regarding his trust in Edmund
All three matters explored within Shakespeare’s KingLear demonstrate that mercy is a critical aspect to humanity and without the experience of both giving and receiving mercy; humans would lack the insight to establish justice within society.
First, Edmund helps us understand that a lack of mercy leads to deceit and the destruction of relationships and kingdoms.
Edmund:
| |“Some blood drawn on me would beget opinion. |
| |Of my more fierce endeavor. |
| |(cuts his own arm) |
| | I have seen drunkards |
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Divine justice is a very ambiguous notion; one might ask what punishment is too much for a certain crime or what punishment is too little for a crime. For example, in the case of Chris Brown and Rihanna, some people may think that Chris Brown’s punishment is not just. But based on divine justice his punishment will come in due time. You cannot always rely on the courts or those that are considered the “crown” like KingLear, to intervene and ensure proper consequences. In Chris Brown’s case he is still enduring his punishment, he has been shunned publicly, badgered constantly, lost fans, lost money, and on a downward spiral, the courts could not have caused this. This is justice by the divine One. In the case of Casey Anthony many people believe that she should have been charged with the killing of her daughter but she was instead just charged with incriminating evidence. This punishment was not enough for the crime or deed she supposedly committed. There are numerous cases in which someone committed a crime and received a very unfitting punishment for the crime. In the play most of the characters that were doing wrong were...

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Attempting to further his glory, KingLear actually destroys his reputation and authority and, upon realizing he has brought this devastation upon himself, inflicts punishment upon himself. However, the tragedy is truly established when the audience finds a reflection of themselves in KingLear and, despite the tragic downfall, Lear finds a victory in his defeat when he comes into a purer understanding of the world and his true self. Lear endures an extended storm that forces him to redefine himself as a man. Although the storm eventually calms and order is restored to his kingdom, Lear does not see a future, for his selfish actions destroy the one truth he knew – Cordelia. As Lear takes responsibility for his egocentric actions, he comes to a sense of anagnorisis that allows Lear to better understand the definition of “king” and, although it leads to his tragic death, there is a sense of victory in his knowledge gained, making Lear a model for the tragic hero.
Although KingLear had more faith in his daughters when he gave them the crown, he comes to know he is at fault for his downfall because he thought, as king, that he was morally above all citizens. KingLear strives to create the best possible situation for himself in which he is still...

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KingLear and Gloucester are sinners both. This story shows what happens to sinners who don’t recognize their sin. Both of them have to suffer and the sufferings that they experience are connected to their sins.
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...KingLear is widely regarded as Shakespeare's crowning artistic achievement. The scenes in which a mad Lear rages naked on a stormy heath against his deceitful daughters and nature itself are considered by many scholars to be the finest example of tragic lyricism in the English language. Shakespeare took his main plot line of an aged monarch abused by his children from a folk tale that appeared first in written form in the 12th century and was based on spoken stories that originated much further into the Middle Ages. In several written versions of "Lear," the king does not go mad, his "good" daughter does not die, and the tale has a happy ending.
This is not the case with Shakespeare's Lear, a tragedy of such consuming force that audiences and readers are left to wonder whether there is any meaning to the physical and moral carnage with which KingLear concludes. Like the noble Kent, seeing a mad, pathetic Lear with the murdered Cordelia in his arms, the profound brutality of the tale compels us to wonder, "Is this the promised end?" (V.iii.264). That very question stands at the divide between traditional critics of KingLear who find a heroic pattern in the story and modern readers who see no redeeming or purgative dimension to the play at all, the message being the bare futility of the human condition with...

...Throughout KingLear, Shakespeare combines many ideas, and techniques in order to allow the reader to fully understand the morals behind the main themes, Sight and blindness. This is achieved by integrating techniques which stem from the central plot in order to add and explain additional ideas and devices such as deception, and inversion. Sight and blindness are common theme’s that are found continuously throughout the text, in order to convey the mindset of characters, specifically Lear. Both deception and order and disorder are other key themes in the text, which are used to illustrate sight, blindness and Lear’s overall Folly. These ideas are also supported by techniques such as imagery and antithesis, in order to show the deceptive, greed driven acts of people, as well as the inversion of Lear’s kingdom as a result of his folly.
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...﻿KingLear : Clothing Imagery
Hamza,Saharded,Younes,Deion
Learning Objective
In KingLear the role of clothing is a recurrent image that Shakespeare uses to underscore certain themes in the play.
Discussion Questions
-Do clothes have an influence on the weares mindset? use examples from the book or personal experiences
- Does clothing imagery still have a role in modern society? Explain
-How does examples from KingLear connect with modern society?
-How does using Clothing Imagery help develop the plot? explain
-How does clothing imagery affect a person's opinion on another person
Thesis
Shakespeare uses clothing imagery throughout KingLear to display different themes within the play. The main themes that relate to clothing imagery are Justice, Power and Society/Social Class. Clothing and nakedness imagery is used to show the mental and physical state of the characters. As the character's state of mind changes throughout the play, their clothing reflects this change.
Quotes
Justice-3
Power-4
Social Class and Society-3
Conclusion
The clothing worn by the characters in the tragedy KingLear reflect their mental and physical state in the play. Clothing imagery and nakedness is shown through the quality of the clothes a character wears. Nakedness is also connected with the masked identity...

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The chain of being is an important theme in the play as a principal believed in by most Jacobean citizens as a religious model of their life. In KingLear the Chain of being is disrupted by Lear who decides to divide up his land among his daughters before his death, handing over power to those who...